Get all of the best apps, or just use a spork?

There’s a cycle that I constantly go through with the apps that I use. For a while I’ll find new apps that do a great job at a specific purpose, realize I have too many, and then combine them by using one mediocre “do everything” app. It’s like the choice between using a fork and spoon, or making do with a spork instead. The spork is convenient, but most prefer proper tools.

Lately I’m noticing that Notion can become a spork, for better or worse.

I still use and love Notion, but last year I let it become a bit of a spork for me.

• I can track my reading list in there, instead of using a tool like GoodReads.
• I can use it to replace a paper planner, instead of using something like the Full Focus Planner.
• I used for a little while for spaced repetition learning, instead of Anki.
• I used it to store my main contact list.
• I used it for our company’s CRM.
• I used for managing projects and tasks.

It did a good job at all of those things, but in most cases there were separate tools that did things better. As a result, I’ve slowly started moving much of that stuff out of Notion and into more focused apps. Notion is still great for some things, but when I tried to make it do everything it felt like using a spork.

At this point, my selection of apps is getting pretty wide again, so I suspect it’ll collapse a bit over…